Meatfare

I made something new for Meatfare a couple of days ago. The week after Christmas, when all the hams were on sale for a reduced price, I bought a big spiral cut ham, and stuck it in the freezer. A couple of days before Meatfare I took it out of the freezer to thaw. The day before meatfare, Kathleen gathered some rosemary and lemons from outside our front door, and brought them too me in the kitchen. I sliced the lemons while she used a Braun cofee mill to mince the rosemary. Then, between the spiral slices of the ham I stuffed feta chese, lemon slices, rosemary, oregeno, and thyme. Then I put it in the refrigerator until morning. When I woke up early on Sunday morning I put the ham in the oven and cooked it until it was done. Then we loaded it into the car and went to church. When we got to church we put it in the oven in the church kithen to keep it warm. It turned out pretty good. I think I'll do this again next year.

Holding to Truth

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the holy scriptures which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. —2 Timothy 3:14–16

My New Job.

I dont think I've said anything on this blog about my new job. I quit being a teacher during the Christmas break. I am now a salesman for Quality First. It is such a good change. The work is fun and I am making twice the money I made in as a teacher. I think a lot of people do not understand the role of a salesman. Essentially, this is what my job is: I keep tradesmen employd, I keep factory workers employed, I improve the comfort of homeowners, I increse the value of houses, I make the world more aestheically pleasing. And that is why I am paid as much as I am paid. But, you may ask, how do I keep involved in the world of history, government, and economics? My wife still teaches all those subjects, and I write her tests. Its the best of both worlds.

The Aga Khan is Dead.

I just read the news that the Aga Khan is dead. I had heard of him, of course, many decades ago (I think it was the late 1970s) but I didn't know much about him until about 12 or 15 or 20 years ago, when driving home from the Vigil Service at Holy Trinity Cathedral one Saturday night, when I heard Christine Baranski read Thomas Meehan's Yma Dream on James Lipton's Actors Studio show on KQED. After hearing Ms. Baranski's performance of Yma Dream I looked up every name mentioned. I learned so much! And was very happy to learn that I was not the only cocktail party host to experience this kind of stress. But I am sad to learn that the Aga Khan is dead. He was an important leader for his people.

Duets

It seems to me, and maybe, it's just because of how old I am and the music I heard growing up, but the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s were the heyday of pop music duets.

I remember hearing the song Private Dancer sometime in the 1980s. My Mom said, "That's too bad. Tina Turner was one of my favorite rock and roll singers." I think that, propably,bthis song was in her mind when she said that. 1971 -Proud Mary - Ike and Tina Turner.

I remember hearing this song on KOIT FM back in the 1970s. What I didn't know then is that the two singers, Niel Diamond and Barbara Streisand didn't record it together. In fact their two recordings of the song were made years apart. Back about 20 years ago I met a guy on Facebook who had recently converted to Holy Orthodxy and who had been a radio DJ in, I think, North Carolina. He told me about how they splice together the two recording to make their two recordings into a duet. They probably violated all kinds of copyright laws when they did it, but the duet version was a bigger hit than the two solo versions. Here are Barbara and Niel performing the song together for the first time at the 1980 Grammy Awards.

This song was a favorite of my late brother Ken's wife. Everytime it came on the radio or teevee she would say, "Oh! Kiki Dee!" 1976 - Don't go Breaking My Heart - Elton John and KiKi Dee

I was in the 4th grade when I saw the movie Greeae. At that age (9 or 10) I didn't know what the story was about. (It was only many years later when son #3 was running the lights in his high school production of the play that I finally saw and was appallled by what it was about.) But I knew from this song that if I was ever going to have a woman like Sandi I had better "shape up". You're The One That I Want- 1978 - Olivia Newton John and John Travolta.

There is a maried couple I really want to put on this list of duets but only one of them actually sang. The other was an instrumentalist. The Capatain and Tenille had some hits in the '70s but I don't think he ever sang so I can't count them as a duet. But there is another couple who were married (Until his heroin addiction wrecked that marriage. You know there is a reason why we outlaw that drug.) This song was part of Carly Simons 1974 album Hotcakes. I remember my teacher in kindergarten teaching it to me. I didn't understand it but it was fun to sing. 1974 - Mockingbird - Carly Simon and James Taylor It is one of my favorite songs. I hope you enjoy it. And, Oh My Gosh, do you see the look of love on her face when she looks at him?

I wanted to see the movie because I was 12 years old and "in love" with Brooke Shields but my parents wouldn't let me see it. Now, having read about the film, it seems to me, thaey made the right decision. 1981 Endless Love - Lionel Ritche and Diana Ross

This song was origiinally relesased by Bob Seegar as a solo, only later was it releasd as a duet with Keny Rogers and Shiela Easton, but I din't hear it until 1985 when Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton released it. 1985 - Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers - We've Got Tonightgt

Another Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton song on this list of duets is, really, a Beegees song. (in the late 70s and early 80s I was huge Beegees fan.) This song was written by the Beegees but not recorded by them. 1983 - Islands in the Stream

in 1981 my Dad was chosen to oversee the churches of his denomination in Florida. When they first moved there I stayed in California with my sister and brother-in-law. One day I was listening to the radio and heard a song by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warrens. I loved it from the moment I heard it. All these years later I still haven't seen the movie for which it was written but in the mid-1990s I met Cocker's protoge Phil Driscoll in at a night club in San Farancisco. That is wheen I learned, if I remember correctly, that many years ago they owned, or maybe they only perfornmed, at a burlesque therater in Canada. It is hard to remember these days. Anyway - 1982 Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warrens - Up Where We Belong

I didn't even know about the exitence of Bary White until the mid 1990s but, OH HY GOSH, what an amazing phenomonon he was. Here he is singing All Around the World with Lisa Stansfield, the authhoress of the song, 1990

TELOS of this song. Though this song had been recorded by many singers between 1980 and 1989, the fullness of this song was only revealed by Neville and Rondstadt in in 1989.

It was in the late 1980s and I was a PFC in the U.S. Army's 101sst Airborne Division when a srgeant (his name was Morrison) came in to the battlion HQ one early Monday morning and said, "PFC Karnes, you need to see Dirty Dancing. Take your wife to see it with you. That is an order." This is th on;y song I remember from that movie. 1989 Jenifer Warraens and Bill Meddly - I had the time of my life.

Finally, Beloved, I give you a duet by Al Green and Annie Lennoox. Niether claims to be ORTHODOX buth bothhave opinions of Jesus. Lennox seems to be more complicated than Green. But we should pray for the salvation of both of them. Put a Little Loe in Your Heart.

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

In 1971 the British rock band, The Who had a big hit with their song Won't Get Fooled Again. It reminds me of the words I sing in church every week, "put not your faith in princes or sons of men, in whom there is no salvation. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; In that very day his thoughts perish." Today Donald J. Trump took over as President of the United States.

I was in a meeting when he swore the oath and when one of the men in the meeting (he was listening to a device in his ear) announced that we had a new Prsident the other 60 people in the room began clapping and cheering. (About the meeting: I quit my job as a teacher after last semester and took a job a a salesman for a general contractor. I sell roofs, windows, doors, concrete, solar energy systems, and insulation now. Much more money than teaching.) I am glad Trump is our President but I don't for a minute think he is going to usher in an age of justice and prosperity. I think he'll do less damage to us that Biden did but that is all.

I haven't been excited about a presidential candidate since Ron Paul ran for President. Although, I must admit that the last time Trump was President he did appint good judges to the U.S. courts, but I think that is mainly because he didn't have strong opinions about judges, and just asked the Federalist Society who they want him to appoint. Admittedly, that is a pretty good way to pick people to be federal judges. Gosh, It was fun campaigning for Ron Paul. It's too bad he didn't win.

David Lynch is dead

Snyder's show came on the teevee after Carson's show signed off. I first saw his show in 1980 or 81. I watched Snyder's teevee show until I was tatally surprised by Letterman's "Late Night with David Lettermn". I was 12 years old and was completely confused when Letterman said stuff about being on the air since the 1950s. Anyway, before Letterman, one of the things I liked about Snyde is that his show dealt with seious subjects. He wasn't just after a laugh like Carson and, later, Letterman were. I'm not sure I could have articulated it back the, but Snyder seemed a bit more serious than Carson or Leterman. The first time I saw David Lynch on Carson's tonight show he had with him a "bee board". It was nothing more that a pice of card board with aabout 3 dozen bees glued to to it. I saw it but can not understand wat Lynch meant by it. Was he a genius or was I a dullard? I do not know.

Small Arms in War

I was a soldier. I qualified as an "expert" with the M16A1 rifle, M16A2 rifle, and the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (Saw gun). (I couldn't hit anything with a pistol.) My oldest son, Billy, eventually, though not at Basic Training nor at the Infantry School at Ft. Benning, qualified as an expert with the M16A2 rifle and the M60 machinegun. (He wore my "expert" badge on his uniform.) My son Anselm, a sailor, not a soldier earned the U.S. Navy's pistol marsmanship ribbon for hiss proficiency with the M9 pistol. Since I used indivual arms and my sons used or use small arms I keep up with what is going on. This video about the US Army's grenede launcher is interesting. I am especcially critical of the WAR CRIME of exploding bullets. When I was a soldier we all knew that the 30mm launched grenede was 30mm because of the laws of war. Why would they make anything smaller? Sometimes I wonder if the people in our government know what they are doing.

Movies

In the last couple of years it has come to my attention that people rarely go to the cinema to see movies anymore. I know I don't, I can count on one hand the number of movies I've seem in the last two years. It is a strange change in my life, and I guess I am thinking about it because David Lynch died three days ago. But several years before I saw my first David Lynch Film (I986, Blue Velvet, the only movie I saw after reading a review in a newspaper) I used to watch Siskel and Ebert on KQED chanel 9 out of San Francisco. It was my favotite show on the teevee. I don't think I missed a week. But my movie going memories really started years before I started watching Siskel and Ebert. The first three movies I remember seeing were Fantastic Planet at theMountain View Theather in Mountain View, California with my Brother-in-Law Dan, The Gumball Rally with my brother Mark at the Moffat Drive-in in Mountain View California, and the Swashbuckler at the Century 21 cinema in San Jose, California. All of those cinemas, the Mountain View, the Moffet Drive-in, and the Century 21 are gone now. The 1980s and early 1990s were to me the golden age of cimema for me. A Room with a View, Out of Africa, Big Trouble in Little China, Leaving Las Vegas, Remains of the Day, Romancing the Stone, Stand by Me, Howards End, Platoon, Glory, Nuch Ado about Nothing, Body Heat, and Gump were some of the best movies I ever saw. Hmmmm. Nostalgia might not be a good thing.

Left Over Ham

A ham is a big piece of meat. After you've cooked it it can last all week in your refrigerator. Yes, of course you took the bone out and made hearty ham and lentil soup but you still have all this ham meat in plastic bags in the fridge. And if your wife is not especially fond of ham, really, what are you going to do with 8 pounds of ham? Well, tonight I made something I haven't made in about 20 years. I made an Easter ham pie. It is the easiest thing.

Ingrediets
About a poud of ham, diced small
1/2 of a diced yellow onion
6 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1 cup heavy cream
sliced mozzarella chese, enough to make a 1/8"-1/4"layer in a 9 inch pie pan
1 cup ricotta chese
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon dried thyme
4 tablespoons grated Parmagiano Regiano.
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
2 Marie calendars frozen pie crusts
2 cups baby spinich

Directions
1. bake one o the pie crusts at 350F until it is golden brown, about 30 minutes
2. while it is baking put all the onoion, all the mushrooms, 1/2 the thyme and 1/2 the garlic powder, and all of the butter in a pan over bedium heat and cook (stirring occasionally) until the onions are translucent.
3. put the eggs, cream, flour, the rest of the garlic and thyme, the black pepper, the ricotta cheese, and about three tablespoons of grated Paragiano Reggiano into a bowl, mix it up. Pour about 3/4 cup into anouther bowl to use later.
4. When the pie crust in the oven is golden brown (it is okay if it puffs up a little) take it out of the oven and put a then layer of the ham/onion/mushroom mix into the bottom of the pie crust. Make sure the bottom of the pie crust is covered. You will have a lot of ham/onion/mushroom mix left over.
5. add the remaining ham/onion mixture to the large bowl of the egg/cream/flower mixture. Mix in well.
6. the next thing to ad to the pie crust is youor sliced mazzarella cheese. totally cover the ham/mushroom/onion mix in the bottome of the crust.
7. now pour the rest of the egg/cream/ham/mushroom mix on top of that mozzarella
8. Now put the baby spinach on top of that. It will be higher that the top of the pie crust. Don't Worry. 9. Pour the little bowl (from step three) of the egg/cream mixture on top the the spinach. Try to cover all of the spinach. dont just dup it in the middle of the pie.
10. take the remaining pie crust and invet it on top of the pie.
11. sprinkle the rest of the Paragiano Regiano on top for looks more than anything else.
12. Put it in a 350F oven for 10 minutes. Raise tem to 400. Bake for 30 more minutes.
My wife, Kathleen said it is her favorite ham dish.

The Best Arrangement!

There are two Christmas songs I have loved since the first time I heard them many years ago, The Holly and the Ivy and The Holly Bears a Berry have been among my favorite Christmas carols since I was a little boy. Now I have heard this arrangement, performed by the students at three different Church of England schools and am totally blown away. Wow, what beauty!

Christ is Born!

It was a joy to visit St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in San Jose on the early morning of Christmas eve. I hadn't been there in more than a couple of years, but they were the only parish between my house and San Francisco that was serving Royal Hours. I guess, most parishes were not serving it because it followed so close on the heels of Sunday and most priests take Monday off and they were going to be super busy doing all the services later the night of the 24th. But it was beautiful being with the Greeks that morning. Excpt for the Our Father, and 1/3 of the Lord Have Mercies, every word was in Greek. It was okay. I don't understand why they use so much Greek when everyone in that parish speaks English, but after being Orthodox for 20 years I petty much know most of the services, and recognize enough Greek to know where we are in the services. So while the two priests, the two readers, and four old widows in the congregation were praying in Greek I was praying silently in English. (I love he smell of incense in the morning. It smells like victory!) Then, later that night Kathleen, her kids, and I went to the Vesperal Litrugy of St. Basil at St. Lawrence Orthodox Church in Felton. Wow, what a gorgeous choir! Every parish in America should have such a choir! They sing like they used to be Protestants.

Between services on Christmas Eve, Kathleen and I made a bunch loaves of cranberry orange bread. And After Divine Liturgy today at St. Nicholas in Saratoga we were able to give a loaf to every family in the parish and to the handful visitor who were with us. And of course all the clergy got their fruicakes. And we have one fruit cake and one orange cranberry bread left over!

When we got home Basil was waiting for us. He had been to church at another parish this moring, I think Felton or, maybe, it was St. Stephen in Campbell. I don't remember what he said. And then we opened presnts while I cooked the Christmas sausage and Kathleen cooked eggs and bacon. You know, it's funny, but ever since i was ten or eleven years old and felt ingrattitude one Christmas I have not relished the presents on Christmas. Now it seems every Christmas is haunted by the memory of that sinful thought of 45 years ago; fear that I might do it again. Bit I like watching Kathleen, Basil, Maximo, and Sophia open their presents. And it was fun seeing their happiness when I opened mine from them.

So after breakfast and presents Kathleen and her kids went to visit Kathleen's dad (I might have mentioned on this blog that is was a paratrooper and is a real knight. Seriosly, he is a knight.) while Basil and I watched A Christmas Story Christmas. It was the first Christmas movie I watched this year. At first I thought it was kind of silly, but by the end I was in tears.

I really have to thank the clergy and the faithful at all of the parishes I mentioned in this post. All of them; their love, devotion, faithfulness, and voices made the last two days beautiful.

Christ is born! Glorify him!

An Inheritance, Dinner with Family, and a Recipe.

As I mentioned a few months ago in this blog, my oldest brother died. Yesterday, I got a text message saying to go to his widow's house. When I got there my nephew opened a book and said, "My dad wanted you to have these guns." Then he opened a safe and handed me Remington 700 BDL chambered for .300 WinMag, a Stevens double barrel 12 ga shotgun, and an ancient Montgomery Ward bolt-action 20 guage shotgun with an adjustable choke. I now have more guns than can fit in my safe. I'll send my Axis .30-'06 to my son Anselm Samuel in Maine. Maybe he'll get a moose.

I picked up my son Basil and we played games at Starbucks for a few hours then we met my surviving sibliblings, their spouses, my brother's widow, one nephew, and my wife at a pretty good Mexican restaurant in Sunnyvale. It was a good time. I don't see them often enough.

Today I had work to do so I ent into school but the internet was out so I went shopping for the ingredients for the Christmas sausage, and Mama Samberg's Cranberry Relish. Then tonight Basil came over and we played some more games. I think my favorite was Bread and Beer. He won, but he's been beating me at games for about 5 years now.

Update Saturday Dec 21.
Basil came over and we made the Christmas Sausage today. Oh, what goes in our christmas sausage? pork shoulder, lamb, pork belly, garlic, orange zest, salt, black pepper, oregeno, fennel seeds, and white wine. Use about 3 lbs of pork, 1.5 pounds lamb, one pound of pork belly, 3 tablespoons of salt, 1 cup of wine, everything else to taste. grind it up. stuff it in casings, then trhow it in the freezer until Christmas eve. Take it out of the freezer on the way to church in the morning, then eat it after Divine Liturgy.

The Christmas List

My wife reminded me that I haven't published this years Christmas list. I told her I have everything I want or need but she didn't belive me. So, here it is.




1. Ladies, do your man's shirt collars look sloppy, curling up or down at the points? Then get him some of these nifty collar stays. They say they are magnetic, but I am not sure why anyone needs magetic collar stays.

2. And since we are on the topic of collars maybe your man has a job that causes him to sit at a table and talk with students all day, and he never exercises and his neck has grown an inch in circumference. If that is the case, and he doesn't want to just go out and buy a bunch of new shirts, these button expanders are an excellent thing to geive him.

3. Is your man a duck hunter but hampered by lack of a dog? Then a Started Labrador Retreiver Puppy might just be the thing he needs!

4. Does he have a beautul Smith and Wesson .357 magnum but no holster to put in in? Look no farther! There is a holster for his gun!

5. He understands why you didn't give him the cow horn chair he asked for a few years ago, but how about cow hide?

6. He really needs ball point pens in black and red.

7. You know, he really likes kippers.

8. Yes it's true, he almost never smokes his pipe anymore, but when he does wouldn't it be nice to see him earing one of these smoking hats?

Boxing, a Wreath and More Fruitcakes

Last night after work I went to a boxing tournament one of my students was competing in. I was ringside, and it was a tremendous amount of fun. I hadn't seen live boxing since 1989. I don't know why but his parents weren't there. I wonder if he has parents.

We have a wreath over our front door now, and Kathleen and I made twelve more fruit cakes this morning. It has been a pleasent, quiet day.

I love the holidays.

Thanksgiving I met my son's in-laws. On the way down to Oceanside, where they live, we passed several things I had never seen before and some things I hadn't seen since I was 8 years old. I saw Biola University, my teenage dream school. We passed by Mission San Juan Capistrano, Which I read about when I was in the fourth grade, but remember mostly from watching this cartoon. At one point I saw an exit from the freemay that said Basilone Dr. I was like, No Way! so I googled it to see if I was right. Yes, it was named for John Basilone. Almost as exciting was a few minutes later when I saw Camp Pendleton off to my left; the place where Gomer Pyle lived.

When we got to our destination I immediately loved my son's in-laws. My daughter-in-law's grandmother lives there. She is a widow and has an intese prayer rule. She prays the Caplet of Divine Mercy (Which I learned many years ago from watching Mother Angelica's TV network, 50 rosaries and a bunch of other prayers every day. Her daughter, my son's mother-in-law is Mexican so the food was out of this world: Tamales, birria, chocolate mole served over shredded chicken, plus the ham, turkey, tortilla, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, pies (including my cranberry walnut pie and pecan pie), cheese cake, and so much other stuff I didn't even taste it all. They had me pray at so many meals I was starting to feel like a priest!

The funeral of my sister's father-in-law was two days ago. He was a sailor; a tail-gunner who flew off of the U.S.S. Hornet at the Battle of Miday and several other battles. After the war he became a pastor and a Christian school administrator. Even in his 90s he was active in helping organize Christian colleges. He is an amazing man. Sadly, I could not be at the funeral so I could only send flowers, But, maybe, you can jon me in praying for Charles.

I think I might have mentinoed that I have about 20 different Christmas theme ties. I wear a different one every day and kids who aren,t even in my classes come in to see the tie of the day. One of my favorite things is that I play a Christmas Carol at the start of each period. So far they have heard O Tannenbaum (One of my Vietnamese students asked "Mr. Karnes, what do Christmas Trees Mean" Wow! What an opening! In 3 minutes I told them about St. Bonifice, an ancient Icon depicting Mary, Jesus, and a pine tree decorated with litte loaves of bread, and martin luther using a pine tree to represent the tree of life in plays he staged at Christmas.), The Holly and the Ivy (Not the sermon but only the music starting at about 5:30), Today they heard Il est ne, le divin Enfant. A student of mine from Romania asked me to play a Romanian Cristmas song tomorrow, so we'll all hear Open the Door, Christian. Also, I bought a Christmas tree for my classroom today and invited all the students to bring an ornament to hang on it.

Tonight I drove the chocolate coins and a fruit cake to my godchildren in San Francisco; tomorrow is St. Nicholas day. On the way to their hous I saw a woman step into traffic and get run over by a pick up truck. The driver of the pick up truck leaped out of his truck and went to the womans aid. Her leg was bent in the wrong direction and she was screaming. I pulled over and called 911, told them what I saw, and waited for the paramdeics and police. When the police got there I told them what happened, then went on to deliver the chocolate and the fruitcake. The woman was taken away in an ambulance. It has been an eventful day. Good night.

Pies and Poker

After work tonight My step-son and I made four pies: a pair of the cranberry walnut and a pair of pecan. While they were baking, Katleen and I taught her son how to play poker. It was fun. Also, while they were baking, I charged the fruitcakes. I'm trying Tennessee sour mash whiskey this yesr. It probably isn't too different from Bourbon whiskey. I get off work early tomorrow and will head south to somewhere near San Dieago to meet my son's parent's in law. They invited us for Thanksgiving. Taking pies and fruitcakes with me.

A Failed Hunt

I went pheasant hunting again this morning. The club I am in has dogs. The dog dog I used was uncontrolable. She would not follow commands to halt, and would flush brirds when they were 80 to 100 yards away from me (the max range of a shotgun with bird loads is 40 yards.) She would not stop moving when a pheasant was running on the ground, which means she was between mee and the pheasant. All togeher, I missed two birds because of my poor shooting, and three birds because of the dog. I'm going to be in San Diego on Thanksgiving weekend to meet my son's wife's parents). but the weekend after that I'l try again for pheasants. The best thing about today was being with Kathleen. I have hardley seen her for months because of her masters degree program but she went out into the field with me today, and after my failure to get pheasants she went with me to Black Bear Diner for breakfast (There is a "travelling" exception for all the Orthodox Church's fasts.) where I had the best club sandwich of my life.

Pheasants and an injured hip

Today is Monday. On Saturday morning Basil (son #4) and I went pheasant hunting. (I am a member of a hunting club in Birds Landing and it is a lot of fun.) The dog flushed a bird within 10 minutes but Basil missed and I couldn't shoot at it because Basil was standing between me and the bird. The next bird the dog flushed Basil shot at about 30 yards. Then the dog got distracted by something and rand off. I was whistling and calling and it was gone, chasing something. Then I stepped in a hole. It wasn't too deep, only about 5 or 6 inches, but it made me fall and hurt my hip. Agony. I could barely stand. I spent the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday in bed. I went to work today but evey step hurts. Even sitting in a chair hurts. I hope it heals quickly.

In other news, I am writing a new course based on a book titled Unhumans. I'll pitch it to the headmaster later this week.

I am enjoying the Nativity Fast. Tonight's dinner: A roasted butternut squash.

First Good Rain

I was going to go coyote hunting today but it's raining too hard. That's okay. We need the rain.

Basil was here last night. We made fruitcakes. It was a lot of fun.

I lost my election by about 900 votes, but I came in ahead of a known communist who is part of the local democratic party machine. So I'm happy I was able to keep her off the board, at least.

Life and Real Life

Life: I have met more politicians and press people and community activists than I have ever wanted to meet. And I am a politician. Everyday someone wants me to carry water for them. Everyday someone tempts me to say something I do not believe is true. Everyday the promise of votes is dangled in front of me if I will compromise. Politics is dirty. BUT the Vietnamese are with me. When I knock on their doors and tell them what I want to do they get excited and say they will vote for me. And the Indian grandfathers agree with me and say things I never expected; "America used to be verdant. Men like you can make it verdant again." But there are some groups who hate me.

I was at a meeting the other night where people were openly talking about Communism as a good thing. I did not engage them on their Satanic ideology but I stuck to my talking points: Student achievement, parental rights, and balanced budgets. The audience hated me. They blamed the state legislature for poor academic performance. They wanted to talk about how excellent it is to have Aztec dancing (The Aztecs practiced human sacrifice. Why are public school students dancing for their gods?), liberated ethnic studies, raises and housing for teachers, and community health clinics in schools. And they know that if I'm elected to the board I will work against all of that because it doesn't promote academic achievement. Over the weekend the teachers union sent out 60 precinct walkers to defeat me.

Real life: Kathleen, my son Basil, and I went to my brother's Celebration of Life. I can't describe it. I was overwhlmed and had to leave early. I am looking forward to pheasant hunting in November.

A diamond Ring, my brother, and a gun

Three days ago I looked at my hand and did not see my Dad's wedding ring. I looked all over the house and did not find it. After several hours I gave up and went to bed. As I layed down I remembered Saint Phanorious. So I asked him to help me find the ring.

The next morning I asked my wife to help me look for the ring, for I did not want to explain to my siblings that I lost our Dad's wedding ring. Within 5 minutes Kathleen saw the ring on the kitchen floor. So, today, I put it back on the 3rd finger of my left hand. If you are reading this, I beg you, pray for the salvation of the mother of Saint Phanourios's.


Earlier today my sister Rebecca, my brother Mark, and I got together at my sister's house. There were many tears. My cousins. Friends of my oldest brother from 70, 50, and 30 years ago I knew. Many other people were there. Nephews and nieces, great-nephewes (Oh, my great nephew D.J., I have hopes for him!) and great nieces, grandchidren and and friends, lovers, and... I do not know how to describe them all. All were there. I think I will see them all tomorrow when they have a "celebration of life" service.

Friends, if you have an opportunity, remember my brother Kenneth in your prayers.


My brother, Ken, before he died chose to give me one of his guns, a 300 winmag rifle. I am astonished and totally unworthy of such a magnificent gun. I imagine that it will not achieve it's telos until it is in the hands of one of my sons.

The Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association

About 11:30 this moring I received a phone call from a really nice woman who invited me to talk to the board of the Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association. So, after work today I met with them for about an hour and, I think, I won their endorsement. I really liked them and believe in what they stand for. I hope they liked me.

Campaign news and other things

The election is exactly 1 month from today. I have done two candidate forums (one for the League of Women Voters and another for a coalition of community activists and charter schools.) I have a couple of parent volunteers going door to door for me. The county GOP gave me a list of frequent voters so I am calling them and going door to door to visit them. Somone who works in one of the schools called me and told me she is supporting me but is afraid to help publically because the union might retaliate. Tomorrow I am visiting a bunch of churches in my district and leaving flyers under the windshilds of the cars in their parking lot.

Basil, my youngest son developed an abcess on his arm last week. He saw the nurse at the Maritime Academy and she sent him to a physician. The physician said it is too big to heal on its own so next week Basil will undergo surgery. He is doing well, otherwise. He especially enjoys his accounting class.

Anselm lives in Maine now. He and his wife were moved by the Navy to Maine. He isn't on a new boat, the U.S.S. Hampton has been transfered from the Pacific Fleet to the Atlantic Feet for maintenance and retro fitting. He will be there for the next three years getting sea pay but only going to sea for a few days or a couple of weeks per month to test repairs and upgrades. This means he gets to be home with his wife while still getting sea pay and the submarine bonus. (I'm expecting grandchildren within the year.)

Anselm and Tiffany have on-base housing and he says it is really nice. Rank has privileges. Sadly, a couple of nights ago he was expewriencing horrible abdominal pain and his wife took him to the emegency room. Out came the appendix.

At my job things are going well. In my world history class I have my students read lots of stuff, for example, when learning about Sumer I have them read the Baal Cycle from the Ugaritic texts. I have them read Hesiod's Theogony and part of Works and Days. I have them read contemporary accounts of life in Sparta and Athens. I have them read Demosthenes' Against Naeara so they can see the cruelty of the ancient world toward women. I have them read parts of Julius Caesar's account of the conquest of Gaul so they can see how conquored people were treated. I have them read accounts of Romulus and Remus and Horatius at the bridge, the rape of Lucrece, and the death of Camila so they can see the hard heartedness of the Romans.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week I gave them a lecture on the Julio-Claudian dynasty, detailing the depravity of those emperors, but pointing out that whn Augustus was emperor Jesus was born, and that when Tiberius was emperor Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead.

On Wednesday I explaind that something happened in the Roman Empire that changed it, that Jesus' teaching began to spread. And I showed my students how St. Andrew carried the Gospel into Armenia and Georgia and Persia. How St. Thomas took the Gospel to India. How St. Paul took the Gospel to Turkey and Greece. How St. Matthew took the Gospel to Africa. Then on Thursday I explaind what a gospel is, that it is announcement of a new king's policies, and we began reading the Gospel of Luke aloud in class.

Every few versus I have to ask, "What would a Roman think of this?" or "What would a slave in Corith think of this?" "How would a temple Prostutute in Ephesus reasond to this story?" "Why might the centurian behave like this?" "Do you think the Roman Empire is going to tolerate this Jewish man commanding the wind to die down when their chief god Jupiter is the sky god?" And then on Mount Tabor when the Father speaks of Jesus as his Son, one of my students, a very bright 13 year old Chinese girl said, "Mr. Karnes! This is the opposite of Baal overthrowing El and Zeus overthrowing Chronos and Jupiter overthrowing Saturn!" So I didn't have to even ask a question.

And my students ask me question's too. "How do we know this is true?" I answer "What did Thucydides rely on?" And my students call out, "Texts and living memory!" and I say, "Yes, that is what Luke relied on, too. He knew Peter and he knew Mary."

"Did he really do that?", they ask at least once on every page. All I say is "We only know what the text says" And they ask "Why did he do that?" And I say "We'll have to keep reading."

Cruise Covid

I just heard that my father-in-law, a 90 year old knight of St. John of Matla (hospitaler) and his wife caught covid on a cruise. I am worrried about them. If you are able, please, pray for Harry and Nora.

My first candidate forum.

The League of Women Voters held a candidate forum tonight. It was my first time to go to one of those. It was fun but, wow, the other candidates are not serious people. The house is burning down and they want to paint the walls. They kept talking about music and dance and community involvement while 80% of the students leave the 8th grade unable to read and write English. I just kept hammering away on student achievement.

The Campaign

It is pretty difficult. I have threee opponesnts. One of them is an incumbent who is much loved by the community but is part of the reason the school district is broke and the kids cant read. One of them runs just because he is Vietnamese and gets the votes of many in the Vietnamese community, keeping them from voting for a conservative. He has run before and won, but he has refused to take office, which means the board appoints someone to fill his seat. Of course, the the board has a majority backed by the teacher's union. My third opponent is the wife of a San Jose City Councilman. I don't know much about her, but he is a race-Marxist. I also hear that the teacher's union has pleged $30,000 and 200 phone bank hours to defeat me. All I want to do is teach kids to read and write English.

And I have no money nor time. And I don't know anyone in east San Jose to donate money or hours. And I work full-time and have family and church responsibilities. People are pulling me in many directions. I met with a guy from a charter school a couple of days ago. He said, "Really? You have no organization backing you?" I'm thousands of dollars in debt because of this campaign. I wish I had never agreed to run. All I want is for kids to learn how to read and write English.

My Grandfathers

My father's father died when he was 43, I think. He was a lead and zinc miner in and around Commerce, Oklahoma. He died of silicosis of the lungs back in the late 1930's, or at least before WWII. His legal name was Clarence but everyone called him Bill.

My mother's father was a preacher (And an artilleryman in WWI). He served as a pastor in East St. Louis, Illinois. and as a missionarry to Mexico and, at the end of his life, a pastor in the central valley of California. His name was Clovis Cagle, in the United Pentecostal Denomination. That is a Christian denomination that denies the Trinity. His brother was the superintendant of the California district and, sometime in the 1950s, he visted my grandfather's church and put him out because he thought my grandfather was a Trinitarian. Isn't it funny that I, my grandfather's grandson am an Orthodox Christian who hangs all of life, even all of existence on the relationships between the Persons of the Holy Trinity.

Well, now I am running for school board in east San Jose and am trying to get in touch with the pastor of the largest church in east San Jose to get his permission to put flyes on the cars in his church's parking lot. I hope he recognizes the threat my oponents pose to the salvation of the kids in his church. I hope we can work together to save them.

And now I covid.

Seriously, I'm teaching 7 different subjects(Econ, U.S. hist, world hist, current events, college prep, and entrepreneurship, shotgun team), taking one class, and running a political campaign. And I have Covid. I am falling behind. Uggh.

Covid Again

Kathleen had a headache on Wednesday. Thursday she had a fever and started coughing. On Friday she tested positive for Covid. I had the virus and was sick for a few days. My son, Basil was sick for months. My step-daughter had it it and was miserable for a week. Right now Kathleen is so sick she is semi-delusional. I hope the people who designed this virus suffer 10x more than they have made members of my family suffer.

Move-in Day

Basil (Son #4) moved into the dorms at Cal Maritime today.

I found out today that the reason the Secretary of State's office has been rejecting (3 times!) a form I have to file in order to spend money for my campaign is that I have been using an old version of the form. (Question: Why would the Secretary of State have the old version of the form on her website?) Oh, well, I now have the latest version of the form and am mailing it to her today.

Work is going well. I am teaching a new course: Entreprenrurship. I don't know much about it (The only time I attempted start a business, back in the early 90s, I had to shut it down because I received a letter from the District Attorney telling me that my business was illegal.) so I am signing up for an on-line course on entrepreneurship at a community college and will be teaching it to my students as I am learning it.

I haven't mentioned this very sad news yet because my oldest brother is a more private person than I am, but he has cancer and is dying. If you have an opportunity, please, pray for my brother Kenneth, his wife, children, and grandchildren.

Transfiguration

Transfiguration was yesterday. It's the day we take fruit to church to be blessed. I have a lemon tree and two grapevines, niether of which has ripe fruit on them. But I went to church anyway and and gained much from the service. I used to not see the big deal about the Transfiguration of Jesus when I was younger but about 20 years ago I watched these four lectures by Bishop Kallistos. They are worth your time.

Matt Karnes for Alum Rock School Board

If you Google my name this blog appears first in the search results so I am going to put my campaign website here. I'm posting this on August 2 but I'm setting the date to election day so it stays at the top of my blog www.karnes4arusd2024.org

What we've done during July

A couple of days after I made that last post about Independence Day, Kathleen and I left for the high Sierras. It was our goal to go over the Sonora Pass on the way to Las Vegas. In the past Kathleen and I had been as far as the Strawberry Inn and the snow mobile area a a couple of miles beyond that, but because of snow the CHP had always locked the gate to automobile traffic when we were up there. But Strawberry is at about 5,000 ft elevation and the Pass is another 4,000 feet above that.

We had lunch in Sonora (Thanks, Jeff, for the resaurnt recomendation.) after lunch we fun looking in some antique stores. And I showed Kathleen where I panned for gold when I was a little boy. Then we headed up to the pass. One of the neat things was stopping and wading in the headwaters of the Stanislaus river, and then, once over the Pass, seeing another river, the West Walker flowing to the east and, eventually, into Mono Lake.

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Oh, I should mention the lightning storm we ran into at the Pass. Lots of rain and snow and lighting. The wind was so stong and visibility was so low we had to pull over to the side of the road for a little while.

We spent that night at the Willow Spring Resort in Bridgeport. I liked it. We didn't use the fishing pond but I saw one Dad with two little kids fishing in it. The rooms for rent are clean but nothing special. I think the real attractions t Willow Springs Resort are the plentiful RV hookups and the proximity to good fishing places. But we were just passing through.

After that we went to Mammoth Lake to find some breakfast but it was super crowded with people, like all ski resort towns, I guess. So we skipped breakfast and went on down the road. Crossed through a Shoshone reservation and wound up in the town of Beatty, Nevada where we happened upon Smokin J's BBQ. HUGE PORTIONS OF MEAT. It ws excellent and it was enough to feed us that day and the next two. I should mention all the wild donkeys just south of town. You have to be careful not to hit them while driving.

The next three nights were spent at a resort in Las Vegas. It was our second time to go there and sit through their sales pitch in exchange for a three night stay. We mostly slept and watched C-Span for 3 days but we did buy into Blue Green this time. We weren't going to but two of the locations are marveolus. Golfing and hunting got us. So we are Blue Green "owners" now. It isn't really owning anything, rather it is pre-paying stays at a couple of hundred resorts. If I live 7 more years, I think, it should pay for itself. The salesman said 4 but, I think, 7 is more realistic.

We drove home over the Tehachapi Pass to the south. It was fun for Kathleen. She didn't know that the Sierras get taller and steeper the farther south you go. And she got to see the oil fields near Bakersfield, something she lectures about in her history classes but had never seen. And we stopped at Casa de Fruta for dinner while driving from the San Juaquin Valley through the Pacheco Pass and into Gilroy.

Oh, while driving over the Tehachapi Pass we came across a radio station playing a decades old recording J. Vernon McGee. I hadn't heard him since 1990. It was Kathleen's first time hearing him. She said, "This is what you listened to on the radio when you were a kid?!" Then a few days after that I took Basil fishing at Pillar Point. And then a few days after that I took Kathleen fishng there and then to The Moss Beach Distillery for fish tacos and iced tea while watching the sunset from the cliffs.

And today I finished all the paperwork for my candidacy and took the oath that qualifies me to run for school board. They make candidates hold an American Flag when we recite the oath to defend the Constututions of the U.S. and the State of California.